By Steve Agbota
Anaesthesia and Critical Care Consultants (A3C) has sealed a partnership with Evercare Hospital to boost local skills and training in peri-operative cardiac care in Nigeria.
Commercial Director of A3C, Akintunde Sawyerr in a statement in Lagos said the deal was a step forward in the process of creating more knowledge in the development and sustainability of cardiac care which would lead to increased survivability of patients suffering from life threatening conditions.
Founder/Chief Executive Officer of A3C, Dr Seyi Oyesola said it had become pivotal to tackle the alarming rate of lack of critical care specialty in Nigeria and Africa, hence the partnership.
“It is well known that intensive care is possibly the most expensive element of any hospital treatment regime and is the point at which a lack of expertise can affect mortality negatively, and therefore, most impactful to the sustainability of human life.
“Both A3C and Evercare are committed to providing affordable access to world class standard treatment, training and education through experiential learning to help increase local skills and capacity in peri-operative care, particularly in Nigeria. A3C is involved in many other programmes and manages intensive care units across the country, but will only contribute where hospitals meet international standards, in terms of facility readiness and maintenance,” he said.
Oyesola said Nigeria has only 350 intensive care beds to serve the population of 200 million and that there were about 500,000 open heart surgeries performed each year globally of which only a small number are done in Nigeria.
“Cardiac surgery is most often used for complicated procedures, such as coronary artery bypass, or complex procedures to the aorta or the heart itself,” he said.